‘Harvey Ruvin was a community treasure.’ Miami-Dade’s veteran court clerk remembered
Harvey Ruvin started his political career in the 1960s, and that’s when Miami-Dade County’s veteran clerk of the courts picked up his favorite song, too — a hit by the Youngbloods with the chorus: “Everybody get together and try to love one another right now.”
“It was like a mantra of his,” Rabbi Danny Marmorstein said after singing a few lines of “Get Together” to start Ruvin’s funeral Thursday morning. “He wanted everybody to love each other. He exuded that love.”
READ MORE: ‘Legend’ Harvey Ruvin, Miami-Dade’s longest-serving elected official, dies at 85
The longest-serving officeholder in county government, Ruvin died in office last week at 85 and was remembered by friends and family as a progressive politician sounding the alarm early on the environment, a considerate boss frequently running late from too many chats with court employees, and as a man who enjoyed life, snapping photos of sunsets, smiling habitually and rarely missing a Wednesday night poker game that lasted for decades.
“When I first met Harvey, he was a county commissioner,” recalled H.T. Smith, a Miami lawyer. “He had a smooth, deep voice and kind of a hip walk. ... I thought he was too cool to be a politician.”
Smith said he came to admire Ruvin, for his ability to get things done without accumulating rivals or enemies in politics. “Harvey’s friends and family knew the truth,” Smith said. “Harvey Ruvin was a community treasure.”
Ruvin’s first elected post was mayor of North Bay Village, an office he won in 1968 at age 30. After 20 years on what was then the Dade County Commission, the Democrat won the first of eight four-year terms as the county’s elected court clerk, supervising a staff that’s now more than 1,000 people.
“For Harvey, we were always family,” said Luis Montaldo, the court-appointed interim clerk who was general counsel under Ruvin. He recalled walking with Ruvin to an appointment as he stopped to chat with every employee he saw. “He would ask about how a family member was doing. He would ask about a mother who had been sick.”
Early arrivals at the funeral in the Miami-Dade County Auditorium briefly heard Ruvin himself through the speakers, performing the environmental rap he recorded in 2008. “Hey don’t act surprised when the sea level rises,” Ruvin rhymed on the track. “If this generation don’t get it — forget it.”
His wife, Risa, said their favorite part of the day was watching the sun set behind their waterfront home on Miami Beach. “Harvey took thousands of pictures,” she recalled. ”Each one a little different from the others.”
Merrett Stierheim, who held multiple top posts in Miami-Dade government, recalled interviewing with Ruvin in a Miami I-Hop when he was up for the job of Dade County manager. They became friends, and Stierheim credited Ruvin for convincing Washington to fund Miami Beach renourishment as a commissioner and then ushering Miami-Dade courts into the digital age as clerk.
“In many ways, Harvey dedicated his life to all of us,” he said.
This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 5:56 PM.